Haunted
by Ghost
Summary: Waking up with a ghost in her bed, Kazumi contemplates her relationship with Sayo. Short one shot.


Authur's Note: Blame the Plot Bunny for this one. I've read a ton of Negima! lately and when I came to the chapter about Aisaka Sayo, I admit I sort of fell for that poor ghost girl. What can I say, she's adorable. This is just a little thing that came to me as a result. Now, I haven't seen any more of Sayo and Kazumi's relationship beyond the start of the festival arc, so this is all nothing but pure speculation on my part. Oh well, I guess that's the fun part of fanfiction.

Disclaimer: The manga Negima! and its characters aren't mine.

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HAUNTED

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I wake up before my alarm clock rings. I wonder why I even bother with that thing, really. 

As I blink the sleep out of my eyes, I feel immaterial arms around my waist, hugging me, and the almost-pressure of someone's head towards the spot where my left breast and shoulder meet. She's only barely visible now, a misty haze and a warm glow. She's only cold when she's unhappy.

My name is Asakura Kazumi and I sleep with a ghost. And no, _not _that way. Silly.

I've always been sitting next to Sayo at school, but I only recently found out she even existed. It's true that the air around her desk always seems chilly, but I figured it was just bad feng shui or something. I never really bought the old ghost story.

Of course, that was before that night during the festival preparations, when Sayo went full-blown horror-movie poltergeist in an attempt to communicate with us. After the obligatory insanity, I ended up volunteering to be her friend and she's followed me around almost every day since then. To tell the truth, it was a bit creepy at first.

I mean, it's not like I'm the only one who can see her. Sayo claims Eva-chan can see her just fine, and it seems like Tatsumiya-san can also see her when she wants to. Eva pretty much ignores Sayo, though, and I'm fairly sure Mana scares the bejeezus out of her. So, I'm stuck being her bestest best friend.

It didn't seriously worry me until the day before the festival when Negi-sensei and Setsuna-chan were called to the World Tree plaza by the headmaster. Ever the investigating photo-reporter, I decided to get to the bottom of the mystery. When I found I couldn't follow them, Sayo offered to go spy for me. She came back scared out of her wits and crying. I'm still not sure exactly what happened, but apparently there had been some kind of meeting of magi, they had noticed a second spy and given chase. Lamenting the lack of decent info, I was just about to write it of as a lost cause when Sayo, still in tears and with a quivering voice, offered to follow them in an attempt to find out more.

That's when I realized she'd do anything for me, if I only asked her to. And I think it was at that point she really started to frighten me. After all, having a ghost friend was one thing, but what if she became obsessive? I didn't particularly like the idea of being haunted for _real._

So, when she floated into my bed the first time and I woke up, I naturally went ballistic. My screaming scared my roommates half to death and Sayo panicked and vanished into the night without a trace.

When I confronted her the next day, she was an ectoplasmic wreck. She cried, apologised several times and begged me not to hate her. It all got so emotional I ended up crying as well. I told her I didn't hate her; she'd just scared me, and that was all. Once she calmed down, we spent the rest of the day talking. Or, well, Sayo talked and I listened. I guess she'd kept it all on the inside for so long, she really needed to get it out.

I hadn't thought about it before, but the more she talked, the more I started to realize just how lonely she had been. For sixty years, she had watched others live without being seen, listening to them without being heard, reaching out to them without ever being touched. For sixty years! I still don't understand how she endured it without going insane, or even turning bitter.

I look at her now and see nothing but a shy, absent-minded, goofy girl who only wants someone to talk to. A girl who faced a lifetime of isolation but didn't loose her smile. Sayo doesn't hold herself in very high regard; she thinks she's a looser, a coward and a failure as a ghost. But I'd say she's just about the strongest and bravest person I've ever met. She doesn't frighten me anymore.

Sayo still comes to my bed at night, but I don't mind. It's not even a sexual thing, really. She doesn't have much of a libido anymore, you see, and I don't think she was that into those things even when she was alive. She's desperate for physical contact, though, same way she's desperate for human interaction. She doesn't actually sleep, but she can "doze off" as she puts it; turn her attention off and drift away into her own fantasies and daydreams. She told me she used to spend all her nights in the classroom, and that lately she had started hanging out by a night-open convenience store because she found the light and the people comforting. I wonder how much time she's spent by herself in the darkness, dreaming herself away to some castle on a cloud somewhere, a place full of friends where she didn't have to be alone anymore.

So no, I don't mind the nightly visits, the hugs, the desperate closeness. She deserves every last bit of it, poor girl.

I yawn and pull a hand through my ruffled hair. Sayo wakes up from her trance and smiles at me. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah," I say and return the smile. "Time to get up, though. We don't want to be late for school."

To tell the truth, I've sort of grown to like it myself.


End file.
